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This is a basic blog about my fishing adventures in California. Be sure to also check out my Yellowtail specific article here.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Fall Fishing Trip 2011 - Eastern Sierras

Well, another fall Mammoth trip in the books. This year was Dad, Tom, Tim and Robbie. Gary and Mike weren't able to make it.

Most of the boys arrived Thursday night, I came in Friday. A big storm had just pushed through the Sierra's, so there was a ton of snow, and Tioga was closed. I took the 50 through South Lake Tahoe, then down the 395. It was a great drive.

(above)I love that Walker River canyon!

(above)Bridgeport looking west

(above) Ken's Sporting Goods

(above) Nice little brown out of McGee East of 395

Finally got on Crowley around 4pm. On porta boat with Dad, Tom in tube, Tim and Robbie on Boat. Weather: The previous couple
days, we had some nasty wind and almost 12" of snow. BAD weather. Friday was the first day it was semi clear after the big storm.
The high of the day may have been 48 or low 50's. There was a decent chop of wind on the water, and a few random clouds in the sky.
Started getting bites pretty quick after launch. quite a few small feisty rainbows. I was trolling a single grey punk perch, and my
dad was trolling a black wooly bugger. Everyone was getting some smaller rainbows. We were in the north arm, but not parked on the
point by the marshy cove where everyone normally parks. I coudln't believe it that they were float tubing in the little cove. The
water was exceptionally high. Normally it's completely dry. Finally, around 630 - 7pm, the sun was almost set, and I hooked into a real nice brown. 22" on the grey punk perch.

(above) Nice brown! 22"

(above)Can't beat the view from Crowley

(above) Full finned crowley rainbow!

Day 2, October 8, 2011

Got launched on the lake around 1030am. Same story. Weather today was nicer, slightly warmer, and little wind. No clouds in the sky at all. Right after launch, we started getting bites again on the fiesty rainbows. wind never came up too bad. tom caught a nice rainbow and brown that day. i feel in general the fishing was slow. We tried midging for about an hour because it was so weedy and so much algae for trolling. Dad had almost 4 take downs in an hour, and landed a small rainbow. I think I maybe only had one take down. Tom ended the day early, but Dad and I stayed. We trolled for some time, and right near dark, I finally hooked into a decent brown on the white punk perch. We moved closer to shore where fish were rising on the surface in some glass. We headed over that way and threw the nymph rigs out briefly. We wanted to inch closer, so I just slowly trolled my indicator rod in, and my indicator went down. HUGE brown on my 4wt fly rod. Top fly was some purple emerger, bottom was a zebra broke back midge. It took over ten minutes to land this pig, but we got em and loaded up in near dark.

(above) Fat Crowley Perch (accidental catch)

(above) Nice brownie

(above) Fighting a fish

(above) Nice brown on the grey punk perch

(above) Bend that 4wt!!

(above) Big daddy on a broken back midge right at dark on the 4wt!

Day 3, October 9, 2011

Today started around 10am and lots of algae bloom in the north end. We had to go out towards the middle to find any remotely semi clear water. Some small rainbows, but again, a SLOW day. I had 2 pigs hook up while trolling, but both came unbuttoned. Pretty bummed. Tom had a nice brown again. Dad left around 2pm, and Tom and I went on the Crestliner with Tim and Robbie because the wind came up to whitecaps, so it was too rough for the porta-boat. We caught 2 nice female browns, and a small rainbow while trolling till around 6pm. There were still some white caps out there.

(above) Tom with another nice brown

(above) Troll fish, nice brown from Tim

We left the next day and had a rainy cold drive through Tioga Pass. We stopped off at the ranch which was a nice half way point to spend the night.

TOP FLY: WHITE/GREY LARGE Punk Perch

Honorable mentions: Black wooly bugger, olive punk perch.

Hardly any midging this trip, all strip fish! Overall a bit slow fishing with some bad algae.

4 comments:

Those are some great browns!! I'd use flies and minnow type lures for browns anytime, excpet for Trophy Sticks, they are known to be defective and at a high price as well. You showed us, we don't need to spend nearly $20s on a lure to catch trophy browns!

Nice post scott you trophy stick hater. we all know you post anything about a great lure just to bash it. you are an idiot. trophy sticks have a money back guarantee. nice name trophysticksbreakapart. what trouble you go to just to bash the best brown trout lure on crowley